Changing Directions: Steering science, technology and innovation towards the Sustainable Development Goals

Science, technology and innovation are failing to address the world’s most urgent sustainability challenges, according to a major new report from the STRINGS project. ‘Changing Directions: Steering science, technology and innovation towards the Sustainable Development Goals’ is the final report of an in-depth study involving collaborators from across the globe. It highlights a glaring mismatch between the priorities of the world’s scientific communities and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, which were set up to drive change across all areas of social justice and environmental issues

A community-sourced glossary of open scholarship terms

Supplementary Information: This list of terms represents the ‘Open Scholarship Glossary 1.0’ (available at: https://forrt.org/glossary/. Glossary available under a CC BY NC SA 4.0 license at: https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41562-021-01269-4/MediaObjects/41562_2021_1269_MOESM1_ESM.pdf).https://static-content.springer.com/esm/art%3A10.1038%2Fs41562-021-01269-4/MediaObjects/41562_2021_1269_MOESM1_ESM.pd

Changing Directions: Steering science, technology and innovation towards the Sustainable Development Goals

This report presents the results of the Steering Research and Innovation for Global Goals (STRINGS) project – a major global study into the alignment between science, technology and innovation (STI) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It highlights a glaring mismatch between STI and the SDGs; warns that, if this mismatch is not addressed, it will undermine progress on the SDGs; and makes recommendations about how to tackle this imbalance. To help understand and better address the challenges of investing in STI for the SDGs, while embracing the complex relationship between STI and the SDGs, we make use of multiple analytical tools to examine STI-SDG relations for different types of actors, across geographical settings and time horizons. By combining methods from a range of disciplines, we provide complementary mappings, characterizations and understandings of the complex relations between STI and the SDGs. We are then able to build on these mappings and characterizations to illustrate and explain misalignments between STI activities and the SDGs. By combining these analyses, we gained deep insights into the way that particular STI priorities emerge both locally and globally, and how STI can be steered to improve alignment with the SDGs. Our results can help policymakers, research funders, academics, international organizations (INGOs) and aid organizations to make informed decisions about investing in research and innovation that will address the SDGs and ultimately create a positive impact on society.</p

A community-sourced glossary of open scholarship terms.

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Trust in scientists and their role in society across 67 countries

Scientific information is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in science can help decision-makers act based on the best available evidence, especially during crises such as climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low public trust in scientists. Here we interrogated these concerns with a pre-registered 67-country survey of 71,417 respondents on all inhabited continents and find that in most countries, a majority of the public trust scientists and think that scientists should be more engaged in policymaking. We further show that there is a discrepancy between the public’s perceived and desired priorities of scientific research. Moreover, we find variations between and within countries, which we explain with individual-and country-level variables,including political orientation. While these results do not show widespread lack of trust in scientists, we cannot discount the concern that lack of trust in scientists by even a small minority may affect considerations of scientific evidence in policymaking. These findings have implications for scientists and policymakers seeking to maintain and increase trust in scientists

Trust in scientists and their role in society across 67 countries

Scientific information is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in science can help decision-makers act based on the best available evidence, especially during crises such as climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low public trust in scientists. Here we interrogated these concerns with a pre-registered 67-country survey of 71,417 respondents on all inhabited continents and find that in most countries, a majority of the public trust scientists and think that scientists should be more engaged in policymaking. We further show that there is a discrepancy between the public’s perceived and desired priorities of scientific research. Moreover, we find variations between and within countries, which we explain with individual-and country-level variables,including political orientation. While these results do not show widespread lack of trust in scientists, we cannot discount the concern that lack of trust in scientists by even a small minority may affect considerations of scientific evidence in policymaking. These findings have implications for scientists and policymakers seeking to maintain and increase trust in scientists